HHS awards BearingPoint HSPD-12 pilot

The Health and Human Services Department has awarded BearingPoint a contract to pilot identity and access management solutions based on Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.

The eight-week pilot, involving 1,500 employees, aims to validate a process for supplying secure identification or smart cards for the department's 112,000 employees and contractors. Full implementation will come under a separate contract.

The contract calls for an end-to-end system that meets Federal Information Processing Standard 201, including hardware, software, business processes, integrating with legacy systems, and supporting physical and logical access with the card.

HSPD-12 requires a common identification card and identity systems standards for all federal employees and contractors. The administration has set a deadline of October 2008 to issue personal identity verification cards.

In January, BearingPoint was one of three providers to receive a blanket purchase agreement from HHS’ Identity and Access Management team to test various HSPD-12 technologies. This pilot project award, valued at about $2 million, is the result of that technology competition.